Injuries Already Testing the Twins' Depth

What's been nice is the "bench" players have been performing well, including the now injured Farmer. And Jeffers, now a reserve, has been playing well also.

I've been disappointed in Gordon. He's been a slow starter before, and I have hope things will begin to click soon. He could be very important if the bat starts heating up.

Also disappointed in Wallner, even in SSS. I haven't given up on him as a prospect by any means, I was just hoping he'd take advantage of this opportunity to do something. 

It's nice to have someone like Garlick as a 6th OF option instead of being a potential opening day addition. But I did wonder if Lamarre would have been the choice based on defense, CF ability, while still being a RH bat. No complaint on Garlick, just thought it might have been Lamarre.

Really wish Helman had been health this spring because I thought he had a chance to be a non 40 man option that might force his way on the roster at some point. Maybe later in the year?

Call me crazy, but I kinda like Castro as a "prospect project". I don't know that I expect much, but Detroit hasn't exactly been a hotbed for player development the past few years. And he's talented enough and young enough to still have potential as a nice utility player. I think he'd be better served at AAA for a while, but I like having him as a useful last man on the bench right now.

There is a good chance that over the next month or two, a roster crunch might happen. But I love that possibility. 

Echo the fact that it's great the injuries haven't hit the staff. I think the Maeda move, with Varland coming up for a game, was calculated based on opportunity. And it seems pretty smart. Use Sands, send him down, bring up a top prospect for a game, extend Maeda a bit by missing a turn, then swap put Varland for another arm. Just not sure who that will be. But a nice way to play with the staff.

But I really don't want to test the depth any more than we already have. Can't wait to see guys come back soon, and can't wait for June until we have even more options ready or near ready.

20 hours ago, roger said:

Doc,  I have been thinking that Varland may not go down for a few weeks.  With the way the starters have been going 6-7 innings, they can get by with a 7  man pen.  Have Maeda make his next scheduled start in 5 days, then have Varland pitch the next day in place of Mahle.  Then have Varland pitch for Maeda 5 days later and returned to St Paul the following day.  That would see Mahle missing one start and Maeda two.

I started thinking about this today while listening to the recent Gleeman and The Geek. It depends on how Maeda feels. There are no indications anything is wrong with Maeda other than being 35yo and having not pitched for a year and a half. It appears this was nothing other than rest and a missed turn to "stretch him out" for the season. I've thought, and stated previously, that I felt Maeda...and perhaps Ober at some point...would miss a couple turns here and there, or take a short IL stint with a "tired arm" to just monitor innings for the season. 

The Twins seem to really like having the 8 man pen. And by the time I finish this and anyone reads it, Varland might already be swapped out for a bullpen arm. BUT, I agree where there is a logical scenario where Varland is kept, Mahle could now miss a turn, and Varland gets at least one more start. That doesn't necessarily limit the pen, because in this scenario, Mahle would still be available to pitch a game out of the pen instead of a side bullpen session. That's always been the way the Twins could have a pseudo 6 man rotation. 

What does slightly confound the situation is there isn't an easy choice to bring someone up to replace Sands immediately, who has to stay down for X number of days. Winder and Henriquez aren't ready. Megill is usually a 1 IP arm, nowhere near a long man. Do they make room for someone like Rodriguez? Do they want to promote Headrick this soon? So it MIGHT make more sense to keep Varland up for another week before simply bringing Sands back up again.

8 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Gordon is out of options and it's going to cost him his spot on the 40-man if he doesn't figure it out in the first half of the season. My guess would be Julien goes down when Polanco is back (assuming no other starter gets hurt in the mean time). They'll want Julien getting everyday ABs, not sitting on the bench in Minneapolis. And Castro will go if the team is fully healthy when Kirilloff is back. Gordon will move to a bench utility role at that point, but he's going to have to start looking even remotely decent in the box.

To me it's not even his numbers (which are terrible), but watching him hit just doesn't look anything like last year, or anything like a major league hitter. He swings far too much and teams have figured that out and he simply doesn't get pitches to hit, and is surprised when he does so he misses them. This FO has never seemed to love Gordon so I don't think they'll hesitate too long to DFA him if there's a point where the entire team (including Lewis) is healthy. He'll get time to figure it out in a bench role, though, as they have enough other guys with options they'll bounce back and forth.

Largely agree. But I disagree on Gordon and the FO. I DO BELIEVE they like Gordon and have had his back. While he, obviously, never turned out the way a 1st round #5 pick was hoped/expected to turn out, the FO could have moved on from him almost immediately if they chose to. A bit of a slow starter at each level, Gordon always seemed to "figure it out" with the bat. But not a true SS..despite being drafted as such...deeply in tune fans will always know Gordon as "the guy who would have been promoted in 2019 ahead of Arraez, having his best season, before an ankle injury shelved him". Such is history, and baseball. But through injury, covid, intestinal problems that wasted him away during 2020, they never dropped him. Instead, they stuck with him and never dropped him from the 40 man, took long looks in ST, and converted him to an OF and utility player.

While we seldom, if ever, disagree on most anything, I'm going to disagree on this one point. 

I AM concerned about his slow start. But it's happened before with him, and obviously, other players as well. It stinks he doesn't have options left. But we all know these things can be manipulated. Any day now, Gordon might just "get right" and start hitting the ball like last year and this is a moot point. But isn't it also possible he might suddenly have a sore arm or ankle and hit the IL and then have a rehab at AAA to get a "reset"? 

I'm not convinced that Gordon has a long term place on the roster due to Julien, Lewis, Lee, and maybe even Martin. Not to mention Celestino in the OF. But I'm also not willing to doubt his LH bat, versatility, and his 2022, especially the second half. But it IS up to Gordon.

I do agree that a return of a healthy Polanco, one of these days soon hopefully, might squeeze out Julien. But, of course, it depends how well Julien is performing, as well as any other injuries that pop up. It gets even more muddled whenever Kirilloff is ready to go. 

Doesn't it suck...EXTREME SATIRE...that by May, July at the latest, and even going in to 2024, that the Twins position player roster may be so deep we're trying to figure out how to play and keep Polanco, Julien, Kirilloff, Celestino, Martin, Lee, Wallner, Gordon, Farmer-still under team control, and even consider re-signing Taylor and Salono? And I've probably forgotten someone. Not to mention other milb players who might force some 40 man issues over 2023. 

30 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Oh, I don't think they dislike him or anything. They just don't LOVE him. They didn't create a starting spot for him this year like they did for Miranda (for example), and basically all of his opportunities have come because others were hurt. He made the most of the opportunity last year, but hasn't so far this year. He makes some terrible swing decisions and it makes it hard to maintain solid production. I was just trying to say that Gordon doesn't appear to be one of "their guys," and I don't expect them to go out of their way to keep him around like they do with thereliever who shall not be named (who's actually off to a solid start). So when it comes time to make decisions about 26- and 40-man spots if/when the whole, or close to whole, roster is healthy I think a Gordon DFA is possible if he doesn't start showing something.

These are good problems to have, though. I'm much happier with them having to make tough decisions on guys like Gordon than the simple decisions on guys like Cave, Beckham, and Contreras (no offense to them).

ABSOLUTELY!

It's up to Gordon to prove he belongs. 

The roster, and prospects, simply state that Gordon has to prove himself again. But to be real, it's very early and he has time to do so, I hope he does so because he could be important for this year, if not going forward.

I've thought for a while he's on borrowed time. And that's not an indictment of talent or potential.  But there's just too much talent on the rise with Lewis, Lee, Julien, Wallner and others to guarantee any sort of spot. So it's up to Gordon himself to continue to prove his future value.

Isn't it great to realize the player portion of the roster is looking at a wonderful "crunch" really soon?